History

Having previously been the home of George
Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall, a road was first built in
1815, when it was known more commonly as the New Ballynafeigh Road
before eventually taking on the name of the Ormeau Park.[1]
The road, although already well known as one of the key southern
arterial routes into Belfast gained some small extra measure of
notoriety because of the tensions regarding the Orange Order's attempts to march there on
The Twelfth.

Areas
of the Ormeau Road

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The Markets
area

The Markets area marks the beginning of the Ormeau Road as it
comes out of Belfast City Centre. The area is
based around Cromac Street and the historic St George's
Market.[2] The
area was substantially redeveloped in the 1980s and more money has
been earmarked for further regeneration.[3]

The area's proximity to the city's defunct music halls led to a number of performers
staying temporary lodgings in the area's Joy Street, with Charlie Chaplin
and Laurel & Hardy amongst the leading
names to have lodged there.[5]

The
Gasworks

Close to the Markets is the Belfast Gasworks, built between 1887
and 1893 by such leading Belfast industrialists as Robert Watt,
James Stelfox and John Lanyon. Although it employed very few
Catholics because of the anti Catholic discrimination of Belfast
City council, it remained open for its original purpose until
1988.[8] The
area has been substantially redeveloped under the Laganside Corporation and now
includes a number of office buildings for companies such as Halifax[9]

Donegall
Pass

Donegall Pass faces the Gasworks and represents a loyalist
interface between the republican areas of the Markets and
the Lower Ormeau. It leads on to the Donegall Road. In the years since 2004
'the Pass' has seen instances of racism rise as Chinese and Polish communities have become established in the
area. Combatting this growth has been one of the areas of concern
of the Donegall Pass Community Forum, founded in 1996.[10]

Havelock
House

The headquarters of UTV plc, Havelock House, have been
situated between Donegall Pass and the Lower Ormeau since the
station first went on air in October 1959.[11]

The headquarters of Belfast CityBeat are situated very
close to Havelock House, just over the Havelock Bridge (which
crosses the main Belfast to Dublin railway line which runs under
the Ormeau Road).

Lower
Ormeau

The Lower Ormeau, a term virtually unknown throughout the city
of Belfast and in the popular press until the early 1990s, is
regarded by those who live there as the main nationalist/republican
area of the Ormeau Road and includes the Belfast
South constituency offices of both Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and
Labour Party (SDLP) who hold the South Belfast seat at
Westminster.

The area suffered a number of attacks during The Troubles, when
both Protestant and Catholic working-classes were killed: most
notably on 5 February 1992 when two Ulster Freedom Fighters gunmen attacked
Sean Graham's bookmakers, killing five men in the shop. Popular
opinion in the area blamed Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder, two
leading UDA in the nearby Annadale flats, although it has since
been claimed that, whilst Bratty and Elder were involved in
planning the massacre, the gunmen were actually brought in from
east Belfast.[12]
Bratty and Elder were both killed by the IRA on the Ormeau Road on
31 July 1994.[13] The
Upper Ormeau UDA were also responsible for the murder of Theresa
Clinton, a housewife who lived on Balfour Avenue during the same
period. Bratty and Elder were widely suspected of involvement and
their killing by the IRA led to celebrations amongst ordinary
Catholics in the area.[14] Their
gang which they led was responsible for a number of murders in the
area.[15]

The area was the scene of controversy due to the parade by bands
from Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge over the Ormeau Bridge and through
the area. As well as the general opposition of the community to the
parades, claims were also made that members of the Lodge had
demonstrated triumphalism over the murder of five men in Sean
Graham's bookmakers by the UDA[16] In
1996 the dispute spilled over into conflict between the Lower
Ormeau Residents Action Group and the Royal Ulster Constabulary
after widespread rioting led the police to effectively seal off the
area for two days.[17] The
Parades
Commission initially supported the marchers in the dispute[18]
although since 1999 parades have been banned from the area, even
leading to the Orange Order briefly using the Ormeau Park as their
meeting place instead of Edenderry.[19]

Until 1999 North of Ireland Cricket and Football
Club's home stadium - one of the earliest international rugby
venues in Ireland[20] - was
in the area, although, following a series of perceived sectarian
arson attacks[21], the
club's merger into the Belfast Harlequins has seen the
demolition of the stadium, which has been redeveloped as housing,
known as Lavinia Square and Mews.[22]

Ormeau
Bridge

The Ormeau Bridge links the so-called or self-styled, Lower
Ormeau to the rest of the road, crossing the River Lagan. Work began on the bridge in
1815 and was completed by 1818 or 1822. The bridge was demolished
as unusable however and was not fully rebuilt until 1863.[1]

Ormeau
Park

Entrance gates to the Ormeau Park, 2009

The Ormeau Park is across the bridge from the Lower Ormeau. It
is the city's oldest municipal park, dating back to 1871 and
stretches from the Ormeau to the adjacent Ravenhill
Road. It is also the home of Ormeau Golf Club. Outside the Park a
cycle path has been added
to the road.[23]

The park has been, as stated, used for Orange gatherings on the
Twelfth as well as other open air events such as revival
meetings. It was also the scene of the first meeting of the Ulster Vanguard on 18 March 1972 when William Craig called on his
followers to attend following his decision to leave the Ulster
Unionist Party. Joined by 100,000 followers Craig made a
controversial speech in which he stated that "we must build up a
dossier of the men and women who are a menace to this country
because if and when the politicians fail us, it may be our job to
liquidate the enemy".[24]

Ormeau
Bakery

The Ormeau Bakery was the home of Ormo bread, formerly the
largest independent bakery in Ireland. The company celebrated its 125th
anniversary in 2002 but was then bought out by Mother's Pride,
leading to a closing of the site.[26] The
bakery is currently being redeveloped as upmarket, luxury
apartments with roof gardens and other decorative touches according
to designs by Diarmuid Gavin[27].

The Ormeau Bakery is situated in area that may be regarded as
so-called loyalist areas such as Annadale Flats and more middle
class house around North and South Parade. Cooke Centenary Church,
a Presbyterian place of worship that
faces the Bakery, is unique on the road as having no number in its
postal address being simply Ormeau Park, Belfast.[1]

Ballynafeigh Orange
Lodge

A view of Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge, 2009

Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge is situated on the Ormeau Road and is
the main centre for Orangeism in the area. The Lodge was formed in
1887 according to the plaque above the door. An Apprentice Boys of Derry flute
band is affiliated to the Lodge.[28]

Upper
Ormeau

Encompassing the areas of Rosetta and Galwally, the Upper Ormeau
is a largely middle class area. It is served by the Forestside Shopping Centre
of Newtownbreda.
Its local schools are Wellington college[29],
Aquinas Grammar School[30] And
St Joseph's College[31] (the
latter having been formed in September 1992 by the amalgamation of
St Monica's girl school and St Augustines boys school). The area is
also home to the Rosario Youth Club, whose soccer team Rosario YC F.C. play in Division 1A of the
Northern Amateur Football
League. The clubs teams, which compete in a number of age
groups, are based at the Ulidia playing fields, opposite the Orange
Hall.[32]
Bredagh GAC play in the nearby Cherryvale Playing Fields.[33]

Geography

The Ormeau Road begins with the merger of Cromac Street and
Ormeau Avenue (which contains the headquarters of the BBC in Northern Ireland as well as the Ormeau
Baths Gallery). The road continues to Church Road where it
merges into the Saintfield Road.

^
D. Sharrock, ‘Goodbye to all that, as the Belfast sporting club
where W.G. Grace swung his bat uproots for Protestant sanctuary’,
The Guardian, 13 August 1997, p. 6. Cited in Cronin, M. (2000),
"Catholics and Sport in Northern Ireland: Exclusiveness or
Inclusiveness?", International Sports Studies, Volume 22,
Number 1, 2000. Available at http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/ISS/ISS2201/ISS2201d.pdf